miffed
by ember53608
Summary: Though she's almost thirteen years old, Daphne has anything but changed. daphne ღ puck (sibling love).


This is somewhat of a companion piece to my other fic, "midnight". Again, the epilogues are being completely ignored here.

I like to think Puck would be the mediator between Sabrina and Daphne, especially when they weren't on the same page. It's nice to think about. Anyway, enjoy, and R&R!

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><p>Daphne doesn't figure it out until seven o'clock the following morning that Puck is here, in their house, some long lost apparition come back to rekindle her life with some laughter. She trudges down the stairs in fuzzy, bunny slippers, blinking her eyes a few times to bring everything into focus, and then-oh.<p>

There they are, two fragile bodies huddled together on the couch, one drooling and the other snoring softly. One or two thick, leather-bound tomes are stretched open across their legs, turned to pages with messy drawings and messy accounts of things not unseen. Daphne nearly squeals, skipping every other step as she prances to where she can get a better view of the lovebirds.

Too busy admiring the neat spooning spectacle, she doesn't notice Jake making coffee in the kitchen until he says, "Adorable, isn't it?"

"_Beyond_," she gushes, snapping as many pictures of the two as possible (good blackmail material). "I can't wait to tell Daddy."

Jake raises an eyebrow and considers discouraging his niece of notifying her father, but then Relda is the one coming down the stairs and marveling at her _leiblings_, because "oh, they've come so far". And here stands Red-eyes stretched wide in curiosity-behind Mr. Canis, who eyes the new couple as stonily as ever, but perhaps with a hint of a grin. Elvis, of course, is not far behind, being, in fact, the one to wake the two from their romantic slumber.

"Oof!" is what Sabrina manages before her face is covered in dog spit. The outburst is enough to alert Puck, who zips quickly into the air, far from the Great Dane's reach. "Clearly, the distance was too much to bear for you as well, eh, doggy?"

Relda rolls her eyes affectionately at the boy while Sabrina nearly shrieks for Elvis to get off her, and in the midst of all the chaos, Daphne slips quietly away to the telephone in the other hallway.

Henry does not pick up immediately, but on the second or third bell, clearly exhausted from work the previous night. "Daphne, _please_," he says immediately, because of course this isn't the first time she's called him out of a need to ramble about something.

"Oh, Dad, you'll never guess what happened!" she exclaims a little too excitedly, enough for Elvis to peer at her suspiciously from around the corner. Her father groans unenthusiastically, but for his daughter's pleasure, answers, "What."

"Well, Puck and Uncle Jake came back last night," she begins, sort of half-jumping on her tiptoes (an improvement from biting her hand, says Sabrina), "which I know isn't news, but, y'see-Puck and Sabrina slept on the same couch last night. Together. In each other's _arms_."

"Finally," Daphne hears her mother say from somewhere under the covers, and she savors the approval for a bit, because she instinctively knows what will come after.

"They. Did. _What_." Henry absolutely fumes on the other end, and Daphne can't help but giggle. Their father has always insisted on playing a major part in her sister's romantic endeavors, but most of the time to no avail. Sabrina does as she likes, more confident than ever in her own judgement. "Get her on the phone," he orders, and it's here that things take a turn for the worst, just as Jake had expected.

Daphne bites her lip, calling her sister's name in a whine akin to that of Elvis when a family member lurks in the danger zone. The bedhead blonde makes her way to the telephone, suspicion swirling in her eyes. "Hello?"

At the end of the conversation (which Daphne doesn't bother to stay for), Sabrina hangs up and disappears with an eerie quiet. Daphne doesn't see her come back until later that afternoon to do the dishes, and thinking nothing of it, she decides to take Puck for a walk down memory lane after lunch. The fairy prince looks reluctantly upstairs before agreeing to go, his gaze lingering on the door to the sisters' room, where Sabrina happens to be as soon as her plate is bare.

They go out the back door and trek into the thick of evergreens for old times' sake. She takes most of the time to go over what happened while he and Jake were gone, little things like town renovations and Sabrina's one or two boyfriends and The Poker Princesses' Bridge Club. For the most part, they're quiet, taking in the scenery and everything it stands for. Not long into the walk, they come to a place that's still fresh in the pair's memory.

The old, Trickster King's hideout is near in shambles. Stale and murky water fills an old pool to only the halfway mark, and a thoroughly decayed plank hangs from only six or seven feet above. To the side sits a clearly withstanding pile of trash that ends at the top in a chair which Puck is more than happy to take a seat in. He surveys what was once his kingdom from the tacky lookout, smiling softly at all the memories that come to mind.

Daphne waits at the bottom by the pool, tracing circles in the ground with a stick when Puck says, "You do know why your pigface of a sister is sulking, right?" She snorts at first, picturing a pink Sabrina with a swelled up nose, double chin, and pointy ears.

"No," she answers plainly. "I didn't know Sabrina was sulking at all. I thought she was just doing. . . Sabrina stuff."

Puck chuckles. "Really, marshmallow, do you know your sister at all?"

"Not most of the time," she says, "why, is she upset or something?"

The much matured fairy debates whether or not he should let on to the situation. True, Sabrina will kill him if he tells, but also true is the fact that a talk with Daphne may sort things out for the better. He isn't aware of too many things that have transpired in the past five years, but if there's one thing that's obvious, it's that the sisters haven't made much progress in their relationship since he last saw them.

He takes a quick breath, then says, "Henry forbids any physical display of affection, so Canis is supposed to take away 'Brina's set of keys if he finds us within an inch of each other."

Daphne's face goes utterly white as she drops her stick. Her sister treasures her set of keys more than anything. They date back to their first year in Ferryport Landing, when Sabrina first began making copies in an attempt to escape what she thought was a psycho lady and her psycho partner-in-crime. Nowadays, the plethora of keys is more of a ticket to the city itself, aiding the sisters in their detective sprees. "Oh," she murmurs meekly.

Puck smiles a touch. Though she's almost thirteen years old, Daphne has anything but changed. The flame of naivete still flickers inside her, and he supposes that the bitterness of the world was never wont to penetrate her anyway.

"You haven't noticed how hard you are on your sister," he asks teasingly, "have you?"

Her cheeks flush pink, and she mumbles what he figures is a "no". With little to no effort, he floats down to the earth and takes a seat to her left. She looks troubled, a child incapable of understanding that two plus two equals four, and where Sabrina would lose her temper and rant for hours on end, Puck takes her hands into his and says, "Then start."

Lips puckered and brow furrowed, Daphne turns to him. "Start what?"

He rolls his eyes and tousles her hair, then stands up to walk away from his not forgotten throne. Before disappearing into the thick to go back home, he flashes her an encouraging smile.

"Noticing, marshmallow."


End file.
